I miss when I would get Tumblr asks that actually said things and weren't just digital panhandling scams.
If I was a sociologist, I would definitely be doing a study on the methods and language of charity scammers. Especially the use of emojis, and identification by copied messages vs stock phrases.
For example, these four are all the same, with only slight variation in #1:
(I actually have duplicates from some of the "self-identified" anons above.)
But these two anons share the same new stock phrases:
"days are heavy" / "days that feel impossibly heavy."
Fascinated with the random person who commented on this post saying they've reported me for "genocide denialism."
Not to put too fine a tin foil hat on it, but:
That is the kind of threat someone involved in these kinds of financial scams and the social engineering behind them *would* make! It's a threatening statement to the existence of my blog which usually means heightened fear/anxiety of the target, which makes people more likely to fall for a financial scam. Social shame and embarrassment are also heightened emotions! Bullying works! This would make an excellent social engineering counterpoint (if tugging on heartstrings doesn't work!) and might even be effective on many people!
Sure, you can search the supposed connected usernames those anons claimed and find out specifics that way — but not a single one of those screenshots I showed specifies what they're referring to! The IDENTICAL messages from four "different people" never actually mention what their "family's struggle" even is! There's zero fucking context in the space of those messages. They're all IDENTICAL. I literally cannot be committing denialism about anything specific because those asks don't actually say anything I could be denying. How does this person know that these anons aren't a recently impoverished Nigerian prince?
So now you're asking why don't I just click on the usernames and find out more details? Simple. Because they're fucking fraudsters who sent me the same message like, six times with 4 different usernames attached AS ANONS. Why as anons if they have their own blogs and could send the messages that way? SIMPLE AGAIN: because if they're not logged into the blog accounts, you could have whole teams of people copying and pasting these anon asks to various Tumblr users constantly, and you can probably just bypass the ask limits by changing VPNs or going incognito or something. This is a DEDICATED scam. Is it a bot? MAYBE! But that also would explain some of why it doesn't work *while logged in* to the blog accounts — because being anon probably makes it easier to focus on volume.
Anyways a fool and their money are soon parted.
While we're on the subject of the incredible gullibility some people display on these scams, I'd just like to remind everyone that most online scams these days are being run out of massive scam farms, which often employ human trafficking.
Falling for these isn't just an 'oopsy doopsy, you're out some money' sort of a thing. If you send money to obvious scammers and if you platform obvious scammers, you are very likely directly financially supporting modern day slavery. That's not an exaggeration, and I'm not being alarmist. Please read any of these articles on the subject if you don't believe me:
Tens of thousands of people from across Asia have been coerced into defrauding people in America and around the world out of millions of dol
A man was abducted by a Chinese gang and forced to work in a scam operation. He gathered financial information, photos and videos and shared
Traffickers are forcing thousands of people from across Asia to work in online scam centres.
Myanmar youth recount life inside a cyber-scam mill before a city’s fall brought the scheme crashing down.
This is what you are supporting when you send these people money. It's not a neutral act to give to these scammers; it's a horrible, evil act, because in most cases, it directly supports horrific exploitation. And if you really were fooled? If you gave to one of these scammers and you really had no idea what you were probably supporting? Then I'm sorry, but digging your heels in and insisting that the lies you were fed are the truth helps no one. Take your blinders off and face reality, and start doing better.
There are many legitimate ways to donate money to help Palestine or other causes...random anons in your tumblr inbox is not one of them.
